worth it

moments like these make it ALL worth it:

kyle hard at work......learning!

ben receiving a citizenship award from his principal

and looking for me in a crowd!

noah...quietly and sweetly watching his shows

.....and displaying his "chicken magic" shirt. (of course, his version of chicken magic is to fart on you)

creative slump

yep, it's official...i am in a slump. i haven't scrapbooked in like a week, a new record for me. when i sit to create i don't know where to start, or what to begin. it really is getting to me and spilling over into other areas of my life. this may sound crazy, but i think i'm even a tad depressed as a result. i know, it's crazy. and those of you that don't scrapbook, paint, sculpt, draw, what have you, probably can't comprehend it. but, there it is. a mild depression has set in. i plan on giving it another shot after this post. i'm hoping that blogging will get those juices flowing again. cross your fingers!! i hate being grumpy, and creatively stopped-up. my household just isn't the same. however, i did manage to crank out a most delicious lentil soup, from scratch, last night. yum-o! and we had biscuits to go with it - delectible, if i do say so myself!

well, here are some pages i scrapped in happier, more creatively in-tune times. sniff, sniff.....sigh....

lessons in patience and balance

life lessons are all around me...all the time. sometimes i get it, sometimes not. my dog, sammy, teaches me a great deal, whether he knows it or not. this dog has the patience of Job. noah has adopted him as his sidekick. he piles toys all around him (as pictured). piles himself on top of him. throws the tennis ball for him, but ends up throwing it AT him. sammy just deals. he never protests. never even flinches. he simply licks noah every now and then. patient and loving. what a dog! i am always amazed and promptly award him with my love and affection.

then there is always the writing on the wall lessons. you know, the ones that you could literally walk right into and not even notice. this one was on the wall at a restaurant we ate at this weekend. balance. never mind that if you really read it, it is talking about balance in your diet and nutrition. to me it is just a simple reminder to incorporate balance into my life. i think i do a pretty good job of it. all the main elements are there: exercise, play, love (with my kids and husband), spirituality, creative exploration. i even have time to squeeze a novel or two in. still, it never hurts to keep this lesson in the forefront of your mind. repetition. don't you just love life lessons??

special delivery

the thing about moving is that it affords you the opportunity to purge. i have the tendency to collect things, and this goes in spurts. apparently over the years i have "collected" many, many blankets. with all the snow and cold weather we've gotten lately, stephan and i thought it would be cool to find special homes for each of the blankets. namely with some of denver's homeless. (not to mention the opportunity to show the boys how fortunate they really are, and teach them to be charitable.) so tonight we all piled into the van and drove to downtown. we really didn't have a specific place in mind...probably should have looked up a few homeless shelters beforehand...but we didn't think that far ahead - live and learn. now let me tell ya, tonight was flippin' FREEZING!!! as a result, there really weren't any homeless to be found on the streets (fortunately!). this led us to drive around until we could find a homeless shelter, which, eventually, we did. we did encounter one man digging through the trash, so stephan pulled over and asked him if he needed a blanket or two. he was more worried that he was taking away from our kids, which we assured him was NOT the case. so he took two blankets. one to sleep with, and one to make into a poncho - smart! the rest found good homes with people at a shelter in a church. it took us a while, but with determination, persistence and a bit of aimless driving we were led to where the blankets needed to be. all was right in our world! of course i didn't miss the opportunity to get a few stellar pics of denver...come on, would you??

take a stroll with me...

down memory lane (the shock value of some of these pics is extreme...be warned!)

picture 1: i'm happy to report that my sister's eyes did get back to normal. in fact she is quite attractive now! i think it was the effect of the man-eating green carpet.

picture 2: so i think the reason i have this creepy little smile on my face is i was getting ready to goose that cute boy with the rad hair!

picture 3: thankfully my legs weren't split in two by my pulling my shorts up to my neck. and yes, i am officially out of my "orphan annie" hair stage. whew. we can all sleep a little easier!

picture 4: i've always had a flair for the dramatic. this was the first play i was in in high school...sophomore year. i played a silent film actress with an obnoxious voice. fun.

picture 5: ah yes. i've saved the best for last. this is me and my date off to the Christmas dance. dude, i had the freakin' hugest crush on that guy. david lee. i was a sophomore, he was a senior. don't judge me too harshly on the hair, or dress for that matter. it was 1988...need i say more?

gorgeous little moments

it's moments like these...everyday snapshots of life. things that you tend to look past because, well, you see them everyday and they have become part of the backdrop of life. but, you know, as i look back through my pictures, it's the ones that have captured this backdrop that are the most interesting to me. i suspect i'm not the only one. so as you look around you notice, really notice these gorgeous little moments that surround you. talk about looking at things through new eyes...it's so refreshing! of course, i'll take it a step further and scrapbook these moments. i mean, come on, that's what i do!

enjoy your own gorgeous little moments!

dreaming while awake....

this is something i do a lot. in many different forms. one of those is my illustrated journal. it's a place that i put any and all ideas i come across in magazines. i also make notes and date each page. that way when i go back and look through it i can see how my tastes might have changed, or if something is really "speaking" to me. i find that to be the case a lot because i see many reaccuring themes. it's really one of my favorite unwinding activities, and something that has helped me to evolve my own style. i have almost filled my first notebook. it's taken two years because i go in spurts with it. lately though, i've been fillin' it like mad!














































i strongly urge anyone to do this. it's so wonderful, freeing, creatively delicious, and most satisfying. not to mention how my scrapbooks, home and fashion has benefited. truly, try this...i promise you'll have fun!!!
sweet dreams!

revamp, rev-up, overhaul

my car? no. me! it's not all bad, in fact by most people's standards it's not bad at all. however, when buttoning the jeans in the morning i have to pull just a little more than i would like. and, yes, i am 33 and feel age setting in. mainly in my left knee. i refuse, absolutely refuse to become a bitter, whining, pathetic, bag of a woman! refuse i tell you! so we go to what has been tried and true...Tae Bo. ah yes, Billy and i go way back. he once kicked my sorry butt into a puney size 2! HA! i'm telling ya, Tae Bo works it out. all out. you lose weight and inches in places you didn't know you had places. perfect for me at this point in my life. perhaps it's a bit of an early mid-life crisis, or maybe it's the voices inside that are playing havoc with my confidence. either way, it's not all bad because it's motivated me to take action. so last night i put in one of the dvd's and went to work. i had to navigate around a busy three year old and a dog who wanted the tennis balls i had in my hands. why tennis balls you ask...well, you are supposed to use smallish exerisize balls but after moving a couple thousand times i only have one of said balls left. go figure. so with every punch or lift of my arms sammy's head would sway to and fro, complete with pathetic puppy dog eyes. not to worry though, he was rewarded at the end of the workout with his tennis balls. all was right in his world again.
i'll let you know how it's going. i'm hoping that by putting this...goal, declaration, ambition, whatever you want to call it, on this blog it will be further motivation for me not to quit on myself. i need all the mojo i can get. so, dear void, send me that all too precious mojo!!!!!

pure and simple things

are the essence of a great life! my computer frustrations didn't end as i thought they would. no. it's kind of snowballing into a long freakin' process. undeleting things is not as easy as it sounds. especially when you've deleted A LOT and what you've deleted isn't labeled very well. sigh. during the day this process is especially long due to the fact that i have a demanding 3 year old who thinks i am only here to serve his needs. so, deep breath. ahhh...it's all good.
after yesterday you better believe i needed my nightly CSI fix. don't you just love "on demand"? it is divine. i haven't gotten into CSI: Miami. but i'm ALL about CSI: NY and CSI. it is one of the most brilliant shows of all time. now, i'm a realist. i know that most crimes out there aren't handled the way they are on the show. the expense alone is astronomical. however, the technology is a bit mind boggeling. and i am always secretly hoping Grissam will have a hot love affair with SOMEONE. ANYONE. come on! i guess that's part of his allure. and Gary Sinise just keeps getting hotter. actually most of the guys on the CSI: NY cast are delicious. no? dang, i would love to be a csi agent. it's right up there with my Nancy Drew dream. i would rock a mystery! i've got all the proper pensive looks down pat! i have many different dreams that keep me going sometimes. some, i will admit, are a little "out there". that is the beauty of dreaming though. pure and simple things. the stuff of this mystery gals life!

"OH MY...WHAT TH'...HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN...WHAT DID I DO???"

is what i was saying to myself this morning! why? well, it started off well-intentioned enough. i wanted to clear some space on the ye olde computer (and i do mean ye olde) to make it run faster. i know pictures take up a lot of space, so thought i, since most of my pics are on Adobe Elements why not get rid of the files in the computer. smart enough, right? now, let me pause to say that in my head this morning, i thought it was bloody brilliant. i was really quite
proud of my endeavor. back-patting, the whole bit. anyhow, i deleted the jpeg files, then to take it a step further i cleaned out my recycle bin. after all, if i wanted my computer to run faster i should get rid of the files COMPLETELY. again, a brilliant thought, to me, anyway. so after doing this i go back into Adobe to backup my recent picture downloads onto a CD. hmmm. what's this? why is it "searching" for the files. they're right here. surely i clicked on a wrong key somewhere. okay, let's try this again...uhhh...ummm...(heart beat is quickening. breathing faster. palms sweating). oh sh#$! what did i do???? this can't be true! you're telling me that the files need to be on the computer in order for me to do anything with my pics?????!!!! NO. i won't accept it as truth. okay, so after 10 minutes of frantic searching i finally accept the cold, hard, brutal truth. i have made a grave mistake. perhaps even an un-do-able mistake. quick, think of someone who is computer savvy who can get you out of this one kim... i've got it, my sister-in-law.

fast forward 5 or 6 hours later: i have caved into buying one of those "undelete" software programs for thirty bucks. i need those freakin' pictures back. i mean, some of them are "ansel adam-esque". so far, i think there is light at the end of the tunnel. it's a long process to get them back, but i think i can. yes. all is right in my world again. deep breath. a crack of a smile. okay...so i am allowed to make an incredibly dumb mistake once in a while, right? it's all good.

and because i have a hard time posting without having a pic. here you go. it's not too recent, but it's kind of how i feel right now. content and even a bit giddy at how the day has turned out!